Many items of lawn and garden power equipment are now started or operated with battery power. For instance, many lawn tractors intended for both commercial and home use are started by battery power from lawn and garden style batteries. Other work and recreational equipment such as all terrain vehicles and jet skis also use this style battery. The standard lawn and garden battery has upstanding flat metal terminal posts with apertures to receive a bolt. The usual lawn and garden battery cable ends with a flat round metal connector with an aperture that may also be received over a bolt. Thus, the bolt is passed through openings in both the metal terminal post and the round cable connector. The nut is then threaded on the bolt and presses the flat round connector and flat terminal post together to create an electrically conductive connection.
Because lawn and garden equipment in many cases generates a substantial vibration, it is not uncommon for the nut and bolt fastener to come loose and for the quality of the electrical connection to become diminished. Furthermore, since some types of lawn and garden equipment are designed with the goal of consuming very little space, on occasion lawn and garden battery placement is in a confined location making it difficult to fasten and unfasten a nut and bolt connection. Such fastening and unfastening may require partial disassembly of the equipment in order to have proper access to the terminal and battery connector. Furthermore, on occasion the battery and connector become subject to corrosion. This corrosion may impair the proper transmission of battery power from the battery terminal post through the battery cable connector, thereby diminishing the electrical power. To remedy the diminished transmission of power, the battery connector has to be removed, corrosion brushed away from the connector and the terminal post and then the parts reconnected. When there is corrosion, loosening the nut on the bolt may be difficult as there may also be corrosion locking the nut on the bolt. In addition, if the battery is spent, the old battery must be removed and replaced with a new one.
What is needed, then, is a battery clamp that easily and securely fastens a lawn and garden type battery cable connector to a lawn and garden battery terminal post, that is corrosion resistant and that can be fastened and unfastened without tools.